All national and international flights have been cancelled and public transport suspended.

Electricity in the capital has been cut off to avoid accidents with falling power cables.

"The whole of Havana is in total darkness, everyone is
using candles," one resident said.

Reports say that large areas of agricultural land, especially in the west and centre of the country, have been devastated and homes have been damaged.

There is also severe flooding, mostly in coastal areas. The state television, running on emergency generators, spoke of medical workers wading knee-deep through sea water in Havana's main hospital.

Successful preparation

But there are few reports of casualties. The BBC correspondent in Havana, Daniel Schweimler, says this is probably thanks to the huge civil defence operation launched by the Cuban authorities over the past few days.

As Hurricane Michelle clears Cuba on Monday, it could hit the southern tip of Florida, before heading out towards the Bahamas.

In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush has declared a state of emergency, and residents in the Florida Keys and South Florida have been advised to evacuate their homes.

Homes and businesses are already being boarded up in southern Florida, and people are being told to stock up on food.

Wreaking havoc

Earlier, Hurricane Michelle led to the deaths of at least 12 people in Central America, as heavy rains flooded rivers and caused mudslides.

Thousands of residents of the Atlantic coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua have been left homeless.

Ten people were confirmed dead in Honduras, where some coastal areas received half their usual annual rainfall in five days last week.

Atlantic coast residents were reportedly trapped for days on rooftops or patches of high ground, and some were said to be surviving on the carcasses of drowned farm animals.

In Nicaragua, officials say some 10,000 people have been made homeless by the hurricane.

The two countries are still struggling to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, when some 20,000 people were killed in the region, and more than six billion dollars' worth of damage was caused.